dsm-firmenich offers innovation backed by a century of science

Editor’s note: Welcome to Ingredient Innovation, CMN’s new segment exploring recent innovations and trends in the dairy ingredients sector. For this segment, we will profile a leader in the ingredients industry as well as share updates on mergers and acquisitions and new offerings for cheese and dairy in ingredients — where flavor begins.

Photo courtesy of dsm-firmenich

DELVO PHAGE TEST KIT — dsm-firmenich offers a Delvo Phage Test Kit to detect phages faster and more effectively. The kit delivers results in one hour — in everything from mesophilic applications like Quark and continental cheese to thermophilic applications including Mozzarella, U.S. Cheddar and yogurt.

Photo courtesy of dsm-firmenich

BETTER CHEDDAR — dsm-firmenich has a number of cultures, enzymes and flavor solutions for cheese to help customers create ideal taste and texture.

By Alyssa Mitchell

PLAINSBORO, N.J. — As a leading
provider of proactive solutions in health, beauty and nutrition, including cheese and dairy foods,
dsm-firmenich strives to meet consumers’ ever-evolving needs with its purpose of bringing progress to life.

Officially launched this fall following the successful merger of DSM, based in the Netherlands, and Firmenich, based in Switzerland, dsm-firmenich — with U.S. headquarters in Plainsboro, New Jersey — brings together one of the largest global innovation and creation communities in nutrition, health and beauty. With a nearly 30,000-strong team and unparalleled capabilities built on more than a century of cutting-edge science, dsm-firmenich is positioned as a leader in the reinvention, manufacturing and combination of food ingredients, vital nutrients, flavors and fragrances.

Eric Aspenson, sales director for dsm-firmenich’s dairy team in North America, says the new business brings together two iconic global companies powered by world class science.

“We’re better positioned to innovate and create better products and solutions for customers in the nutrition, health and beauty spaces,” Aspenson says. “This merger allows us to serve customers on a greater global scale to underpin what we set out to do each day — create products essential for life, that consumers desire, and make sure those same creations are really sustainable for the planet.”

dsm-firmenich is organized into four distinct high-performing businesses that together are uniquely positioned to help customers realize their ambitions and address evolving consumer needs and wants.

The company’s Taste, Texture & Health division helps customers create food and beverage products that are tasty, nutritious and sustainable.

Aspenson notes the division offers a range of functional ingredients specifically for the dairy industry
including cultures, enzymes, vitamins and premixes, proteins, flavors, colors and more.

Consumers’ need for solutions through food for health and well-being is at an all-time high, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, Aspenson says.

“Dairy certainly is included in that,” he notes. “Consumers say they want to be proactive in maintaining health and wellness. Our vitamin premixes are well-known, and for good reason. We can include many attributes in these solutions to address the health and well-being component, as well as demands for low or reduced sugar, lactose-free dairy, high-protein dairy and plant-based beverages.”

• Trending solutions

Delvo Fresh Pioneer is one of the company’s latest innovations in starter cultures for yogurt. It helps guarantee creaminess and mildness throughout the product’s shelf life.

“Delvo Fresh Pioneer starter cultures give our customers remarkable flexibility in developing various mild yogurt recipes that deliver consistently mild and creamy taste and texture throughout the product’s shelf life.

These pioneering cultures are shown to maintain an extremely stable pH for up to 60 days in cold storage — a significant improvement on standard cultures for mild yogurt,” Aspenson says.

Delvo Fresh Pioneer starter cultures are ideal for high-value recipes — including smooth, creamy yogurt and mild, reduced-sugar yogurt with “better-for-you” appeal, he adds.

“We’re investing heavily in culture development as we know the possibilities are near limitless and more taste, texture and health benefits are out there to discover. These new cultures complement our fermented dairy toolkit of starter, bioprotective and probiotic cultures, enzymes, hydrocolloids and nutritional solutions,” said Karoline Kjaerulff, global business development manager, fermented milk and plant, for dsm-firmenich, when the culture launched in September. “The new Delvo Fresh Pioneer cultures give yogurt manufacturers the tools needed to produce delicious, mild yogurt — consistently. The ideal pH stability enabled by these new cultures is what sets them apart, and for dairy manufacturers, consistency and flexibility really are key to success.”

Also in the bioprotective realm, dsm-firmenich offers Delvo Guard cultures. Delivered as direct vat
cultures (DVC), they delay yeast and mold growth, with no, or limited, impact on fermentation process and time. They also do not impact taste and texture, and are easy to use.

On the cheese side, dsm-firmenich has a number of cultures, enzymes and flavor solutions as well.

From its broad range of bulk starter solutions to DVC starter culture and adjunct cultures, the company can help customers create ideal taste and texture in cheese.

Dairy Safe DVC cultures help customers avoid late blowing defects in ripened cheese, minus the preservatives, while Ceska Star cultures, as well as DVC mixtures, deliver diverse taste profiles from sweet to sharp for Swiss cheese.

For customers searching for adjunct cheese cultures, dsm-firmenich offers its Flavor Wheel cultures to help create unique flavor profiles. The Flavor Wheel concept is based on the company’s broad range of Ceska Star and Delvo ADD adjunct cultures, proven over 50 years to add signature flavor profiles to various cheese styles including Gouda, Cheddar and Monterey Jack. Customers can use these adjunct cultures in any combination to help create ideal products, building on the flavorful acidification already created by dsm-firmenich’s starter cultures.

“Taste is always going to be a top priority,” Aspenson says. “Consumers won’t re-buy a product if they don’t enjoy consuming it, especially in dairy.”

• Quality control

Meanwhile, the company also offers a Delvotest kit for easy and accurate antibiotic residue testing, Aspenson notes. For farmers, dairies and milk control laboratories alike, Delvotest is the ultimate early warning system — proven over 40 years to maximize product yield and prevent milk loss by detecting all major antibiotics in a single test.

Additionally, dsm-firmenich offers a Delvo Phage Test Kit to detect phages faster and more effectively. The proven Delvo Phage Test Kit delivers results in one hour — in everything from mesophilic applications like Quark and continental cheese to thermophilic applications including Mozzarella, U.S. Cheddar and yogurt.

The Delvo Phage Test Kit gives customers a more consistent production process for cheese and fermented products, increasing production capacity and improving yield, while reducing product downgrades and waste.

While taste, protection and innovation drive many of the company’s solutions, sustainability is a key pillar in dsm-firmenich’s offerings as well. In addition to their own health, consumers increasingly are concerned about the health of the planet, Aspenson notes.

“Health of the planet recently took over personal health for consumers as a top priority,” he says.

“We’re always trying to help customers meet their sustainability goals — including helping with
efficiencies within the processing facility itself,” he adds. “So if we’re able to offer an enzyme to help with hydrolysis, for example — processors are able to use these enzymes to make the most of the inputs they’re putting into the system to reduce any waste or resources.”

The company also works to help customers reduce yield loss and increase shelf life on dairy products so less product is thrown away due to growth of yeast and mold.

As a company formed of two global sustainability leaders, Aspenson says dsm-firmenich is determined to keep growing its positive impact for the good of people, climate and nature.

“For us, sustainability is not a buzzword — it’s intrinsically embedded in our purpose of bringing progress to life,” he says.

Company officials note that as the dsm-firmenich merger comes together, the two companies are excited to learn from one another to be able to deliver more sustainable solutions in more sustainable ways. The company is working on a new sustainability strategy — “one that will see us aim higher, go further and move faster when it comes to supporting our planet and its people. One with a new set of targets, aligned with the latest science and regulatory requirements and covering people, climate and nature. One that’s delivered by our dedicated people and supported by our strong governance,” officials say.

“We love working with committed partners of all shapes and sizes, all around the world, so we can improve the sustainability of our own organization, help our customers develop more sustainable products and raise our voice louder when we call for change,” the company adds.

CMN

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